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History

History

Created in 1899 by Joseph Drouin, the Drouin Genealogical Institute (Institut
genealogique Drouin in French) was first known as the company Les Généalogies
Drouin enr., before taking its definitive trade name in 1913. Nobody should
reduce the important role of Joseph Drouin in the development of his company.
From 1899 to 1937, the lawyer sold more than 1,500 family genealogies.

The Drouin Institute reached its peak under the management of Gabriel Drouin,
the son of Joseph. From 1938, he gave himself the goal of microfilming most of
Quebec Vital Records for all religions. Due to the success and growth of his
Institute, Gabriel Drouin felt the need to form a team of contributors. This
team put on index cards the data that were accumulated over the years. The
results of this huge undertaking are now available on several formats: the
Kardex, the series of 2366 microfilms, the Dictionnaire national des
canadiens-français (the Red Drouin or the National Dictionary of French
Canadians) and the two series known as the Masculine (the Men Series) and the
Feminine (the Women Series) (also known as the Blue Drouin, presented by men and
by women).

Despite the lack of public funding, the Drouin family created an important
genealogical resource that became a good return on their investment of time and
effort. The creators of Drouin Institute never wanted to put their large
collections in public libraries, archives, and other organizations. They
preferred to limit their data to their paid customers instead of releasing it to
everybody. Consequently, they had a virtual monopoly on genealogical asset of
great value for a very long time.

When Gabriel Drouin died in 1980, except for the remarkable actions of Claude
Drouin, his heirs found they could not continue the business. They had to sell a
part of the family assets to Americans. The genealogist Jean-Pierre Pepin got
involved at that time. He restarted the Drouin Institute to reclaim its
credibility in an effort to keep most of Drouin data in Quebec. His on-line
catalogue enumerates all the data products of the Drouin creators and also some
select recent genealogists.

The whole Drouin set, including at least eleven large parts, are named in the
catalogue. Each part has a supplement the reader will find under the "More
about" link. The first part is named the Drouin Genealogical Files. It includes
first hand material found before 1960 by Joseph and Gabriel Drouin associated
with the completed family genealogical cases. The following ones, the Kardex and
the series of 2366 microfilms, are a gathering of data about most
French-speaking families of Quebec, Ontario, Acadia and United States. The works
of modern genealogists like René Jetté are presented separately in other parts,
like the Little Drouin and the Histor Files.

It is with a great pleasure that Jean-Pierre Pepin invites you to learn more
about the ancient and recent archives of the Drouin Institute, a patrimony that
is unusual for many reasons.